Colleen Heflin, professor of public administration and international affairs, has been appointed to a three-year term on the Committee on National Statistics at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The committee’s mission is to provide advice to the federal government and advance the quality of statistical information for public- and private-sector decision making. It conducts studies on data and methods for topics related to the economy, public health, education, immigration, poverty and other public policy issues. Established in 1972, it provides an independent review of federal statistical activities and has created over 300 publications.

Heflin is a senior research associate at the Center for Policy Research, a research affiliate at the Center for Aging and Policy Studies and the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health, and a faculty affiliate at the Aging Studies Institute.

Her areas of expertise include food insecurity, nutrition, welfare policy and the well-being of vulnerable populations. She received a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 2002 and has over 20 years of experience working with state and local administrative data. She founded the University of Missouri Federal Statistical Research Data Center and the Missouri Population, Education and Health Center. She has engaged with federal policymakers, recently providing testimony to Congress on veteran food security, and has provided technical assistance to states working to improve access to nutrition assistance programs. She has also worked with county agencies to redesign Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) application processes.

Heflin’s research has helped document the causes and consequences of food insecurity, identify the barriers and consequences of participation in nutrition programs, and understand the changing role of the public safety net in the lives of low-income Americans. It has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Russell Sage Foundation. She has received numerous honors, including the American Sociological Association’s W. Richard Scott Award for Distinguished Scholarship.

By Michael Kelly